A rich, nuanced score and a complex, emotional story: Don Carlo is Verdi’s ultimate drama. It is also the Verdi opera that exists in the most number of versions. The version presented here is the 1884 four-act version that Verdi reduced and changed into Italian from the original 1867 five-act version in French. The story is based on conflicts in the life of Carlos, Prince of Asturias, after his betrothed Elisabeth of Valois married his father, Philip II of Spain, as part of the peace treaty ending the Italian War of 1551-1559 between the Houses of Habsburg and Valois.